Mr Hilton said he had discussed the Murphys Creek deaths with Allan "Ungie" Laurie in recent years.

"I said, 'Allan, the police want to talk to you about the Murphys Creek murders'," Mr Hilton told the court.

"He said, 'Well I'll be telling them to ring my barrister'."

Ms Wilson, 20, and Ms Evans, 18, were abducted, bound and beaten to death in what remains one of Australia's most shocking unsolved crimes.

An impassioned plea from Ms Wilson's late mother, Betty, and brother, Eric, to Queensland Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie last year prompted a second coronial inquest into the killings, which began this week.

With one witness too ill to travel to Toowoomba to give evidence, the hearing was adjourned on Thursday afternoon.

Police have been inundated with new information in the past four days.

"A number of new lines of inquiry have come out of this coronial process and they will be pursued in the very near future by homicide investigators," said Inspector Kerry Johnson, who took carriage of the cold case in 2004.

Despite his grief, Eric Wilson left the court feeling much relief.

"It's a great relief," he said. "We've waited nearly 40 years for this."